Wheels height adjustment for lawn-mowers



March 21, 1961 J. GBUR 2,976,050

WHEELS HEIGHT ADJUSTMENT FOR LAWN-MOWERS Filed Oct. 2, 195a 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 2e 15 lfij INVENTOR. .TUHN GBUR March 21, 1961 J. GBUR 2,976,050

WHEELS HEIGHT ADJUSTMENT FOR LAWN-MOWERS Filed Oct. 2, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR,

JOHN EBUR United States Patent WHEELS HEIGHT ADJUSTMENT FOR LAWN -MOWERS John Gbur, Cleveland, Ohio, assignor to The M.T. & D. Company, Cleveland, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Filed Oct. 2, 1958, Ser. No. 764,788

3 Claims. (Cl. 280-4317) This invention relates in general to lawn-mowers and, more particularly, to mechanism for adjusting the position of the wheels on rotary lawn-mowers to vary the height of their cutting blade or blades.

A rotary lawn-mower generally includes a wheeled body, a cutter blade mounted on the body to rotate about a vertical axis and adjustable wheel supporting means constructed to control the elevation of the body and cutter blade with respect to the ground level.

It is the primary object of this invention to provide improved, simplified adjustable wheel supporting devices for the body of a wheeled rotary lawn-mower, the wheel supporting devices each embodying a sector-like base member to be attached to the body, a lever-like member opposite said base member pivotally secured thereto, and a cam-like clamping member pivoted to said lever-like member for securing same in a series of adjusted positions to said base member and shifting such lever-like member into frictional contact with the base member for rigid support thereby.

Another object of this invention is to provide an adjustable wheel supporting device of the type described, wherein the sector-like base member and the cam-like clamping member include cooperating means for step-bystep adjustment of the base member and lever-like member.

A further object of this invention is to provide an adjustable wheel supporting device of the type described, with cooperating interlocking and clamping means permitting a multiplicity of adjustments in vertical position by simple relatively small and highly efiicient mechanism.

Additional other objects and novel features of construction, combinations and relations of parts by which the objects in view have been attained, will appear and are set forth in detail in the course of thefollowing specification. The drawings, accompanying and forming part of the specification, illustrate a certain practical embodiment of the invention, but it will be apparent as the specification proceeds that the illustrated structure may be modified and changed in various ways without departure from the true spirit and broad scope of the invention.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a rotary lawn-mower embodying adjustable wheel supporting devices constructed in accordance with the invention.

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of one of the adjustable wheel supporting devices shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a sectional view, partly in elevation, through the adjustable wheel supporting device shown in Fig. 6, the section being taken on line 33 of said Fig. 6.

Fig. 4 is a side elevation of the adjustable wheel supporting device adjusted to high cutting position.

Fig. 5 is an end view of Fig. 4.

Fig. 6 is a side elevation of the adjustable wheel supporting device adjusted to low cutting position; and

Fig. 7 is a perspective view of the cam-like clamping member of the adjustable wheel supporting device.

Referring to the exemplified form of the invention Patented Mar. 21, 1961 shown in the drawings, reference numeral 2 denotes a rotary lawn-mower having a generally rectangular housing or body 3 with a plurality of wheels 4 adjus-tably mounted at the corners thereof. Body 3 has extended therefrom an elongated operating handle 5 and mounts an internal combustion engine or motor 6 having a fuel tank 7.

Although not shown in the drawings as tforrning no part of the present invention, it is to be understood that a rotary cutter blade mechanism is supported by the body at the underside thereof and connected with the motor for rotation about a vertical axis.

Body or housing 3 includes a top wall 8, integral downwardly extending side walls 9 and integral downwardly extending end walls '10, and has attached to the side walls 9 an adjustable wheel supporting device 11 'for each of the wheels 4.

Adjustable wheel supporting device 11 embodies a sector-like base plate 12, an elongated lever-like wheel supporting plate 14 pivotally connected with end portion 15 to end portion 16 of sector-like base plate 12 by bolts 17, and a locking and clamping member #18 pivoted to end portion 19 of lever like plate 14. The sectorlike base plate 12 includes perforations 20 to permit attachment to side walls 9 of body 3 by bolts 21 and has its central area 22 recessed to space end portion 16 and end portion 23 of the sector-like base plate 12 from side wall 9. The end portion 23 has rearwardly extended from its peripheral end a slotted flange 24-, the slots 25 of which extend at a right angle to the axis of the flange and cooperate with the locking and clamping member 18 in holding and clamping lever-like wheel supporting plate 14 in adjusted position, as will be later described.

The elongated lever-like wheel supporting plate 14 has its end portion 15 pivoted to sector-like base plate 12 by bolt 17 and mounts in a bore 27 of the central portion 26 a wheel stud shaft 28 for wheel 4. In addition wheel supporting plate 14 pivotally supports on end portion 19 the locking and clamping member 18 by means of a sleeve-like bolt 29. The locking and clamping member 18 is of somewhat sector-like shape, includes in its main body portion 30 a bore 31 for the sleeve-like bolt 29, and has forwardly extended from peripheral edge 32 of body portion 30 a flange 33 positioned opposite the slotted flange 24 of sector-like base plate 12 for cooperation therewith in locking the lever-like wheel supporting plate 14 in adjusted position. In addition, flange 33 of locking and clamping member 18 diminishes in height to provide the flange with a camming edge 34 adapted to force elongated lever-like wheel supporting plate 14 into face-toface contact with sector-like base plate 12 when locking and clamping member 18 is rotated while engaged with one oi? the slots 25 of base plate 12 and thus insure rigid connection of wheel supporting plate 14 through base plate 12 with housing 3 of the rotary lawn-mower 2.

The position of housing 3 relative to the ground may be readily adjusted from a lower position (indicated by dash-dotted line 35 in Fig. 4) to a higher position (indicated by dash-dotted line 36 in Fig. 6). This adjustment is elfec-ted by individual adjustment of each wheel. For such purpose clamping member 18 by means of its finger portion 37 is rotated in anti-clockwise direction to effect disengagement of its flange 33 with one of the slots 25 of flange 24, thereafter the angular relationship of base plate 12 and wheel supporting plate 14 is adjusted to the desired angle and finally clamping member 18 is rotated clockwise to engage with its flange 33 the respective slot 25 in flange 24 and further rotated to force by its cam 34 the wheel supporting plate 14 into face-to-face contact with base plate 12.

The novel wheel supporting device permits individual, independent adjustment of the position of the wheels relative to the housing of a lawn-mower for control of the height of the grass which is being cut and rigidly supports the wheel supporting shafts in any adjusted position of the wheel supporting device.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is:

1. In a lawn-mower with a generally rectangular body having a plurality of wheels, an adjustable supporting device for each of said wheels including a sector-like base plate attached to said body and formed at the peripheral end portion with a laterally extended, slotted flange, an elongated wheel supporting plate pivoted at one end to said base plate and extended with the other end beyond the slotted flange thereof, and locking and clamping means for securing the wheel supporting plate in a plurality of adjustable positions to said base plate, said locking and clamping means being pivoted to the extended end of said Wheel supporting plate and including laterally extended flange means arranged opposite said slotted flange and extending through one of its slots to secure the wheel supporting plate in adjusted position to said base plate and cam means adapted to laterally force the wheel supporting plate into face-to-face contact with the base plate.

2. An adjustable wheel supporting device for wheels of a lawn-mower with a generally rectangular body, comprising a base plate adapted to be secured to the body of the lawn-mower, and formed at the peripheral end portion with slotted curved flange means, a Wheel supporting plate pivoted at one end to the base plate and extended beyond said slotted curved flange means, and flanged locking means pivoted to the extended end of the wheel supporting plate, the flange of said locking means adapted to extend by rotation into any one of the slots of said slotted curved flange for locking engagement of the Wheel supporting plate in any adjusted position with the base plate.

3. An adjustable wheel supporting device as described in claim 2, wherein the flanged locking means embodies a flanged sector-like member wherein such flange diminishes in height lengthwise thereof to force by cumming action of the said wheel supporting plate into face-to-face contact with the said base plate when the locking means has its flange rotated into the desired slot of the slotted flange of the base plate and rotation of the locking means is continued.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 617,379 Wilbur Jan. 10, 1899 1,117,572 Hise Nov. 17, 1914 1,829,078 Wintterlin Oct. 27, 1931 2,522,339 Bartrug Sept. 12, 1950 2,722,432 Roberton Nov. 1, 1955 2,818,270 Cataline Dec. 31, 1957 2,836,430 Langenbacher May 27, 1958 2,862,721 Wehner Dec. 2, 1958 2,915,318 Chesser Dec. 1, 1959 

